ARRIVAL AT THE COAST 75 



brought up to the landing. For the next four days, going up that 

 river has always, as I look back upon it, been like a nightmare. 

 The current was strong and the men were awkward, and the 

 canoes were dugouts made of poplar. The most I can remember 

 about it is that it was moonlight when we were on the river and 

 we seemed to have worked day and night because I do not 

 remember sleeping at all. The Indians were fresh at the work and 

 were bound to go up in four days and they gave me no rest and 

 took little themselves. 



On the evening of the third day, we reached Half- Way River 

 and fell in with a company of miners from the Omineca who were 

 then on their way to Liard River where they expected to find a 

 lot of gold. They had come through the mountains in a large 

 boat and had left it above the canyon of the Peace River and I 

 hired it from the leader for twenty dollars to take us through 

 the mountains to Fort McLeod. 



The next evening, we arrived at Hudson's Hope and camped 

 on the slope of the bank while the cabin, called Hudson's Hope, 

 was on the other side of the river. My men immediately left for 

 the other side after piling the luggage on the bank and I, as night 

 fell and a storm arose, was all alone. The trees were falling 

 around me in all directions as it was a "brule" and there were 

 many dead poplars. Long after dark, Mastie came back and we 

 had our supper while the storm continued. I almost gave up 

 hope of being spared during the night as the trees were falling all 

 around. Mastie rolled himself in his blanket and lay down be- 

 side a log and I got myself fairly under another log. At any rate, 

 I resigned myself to my fate and fell asleep and in the morning 

 there was a dead calm. 



Since our discussion at Dunvegan I had a feeling that Mr. 

 Horetzky was dissatisfied with me because I would not go back. 

 It again became apparent to me that he had decided not to go 

 through the mountains with me but that I should go through 

 alone. The following extracts from his book show this conclusive- 



ly: 



"After vainly essaying all manner of inducements I had finally 

 to give up the project of going by the Pine Pass and take the 



